Item #CL191-11 [Portrait Of A Gentleman]. Perez Batchelder, Amer./Aust.
[Portrait Of A Gentleman]
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[Portrait Of A Gentleman]

c1863. Two hand-coloured albumen paper photographs, carte-de-visite format, in original stereo viewer hinged case, studio line on backing verso, gilt maker’s mark on stereo viewer, 7 x 5cm (approx. each); 24.4 x 15.2cm (open case). Minor damage to mount.

Studio line reads “Photographed by Batchelder & O’Neill, Collins Street, East Melbourne.” Maker’s mark reads “Mascher’s Improved Stereoscope, Phila., [USA]. Patent March 8th 1853.”

As Mascher’s stereo viewer was intended to be used with two daguerreotypes to create a three-dimensional effect, the carte-de-visite portraits, as used here, are extremely uncommon.

Born in Boston, Perez Mann Batchelder worked as an itinerant daguerreotype photographer on the Californian goldfields, organising a chain of studios on wheels that could easily be moved from site to site. The Victorian gold rush inspired Perez to extend the chain to the antipodes. He arrived in Australia and set up a studio in 57 Collins Street East in Melbourne in 1852 with his two brothers Benjamin and Nathaniel. From 1857 to 1863 Batchelder worked in partnership with Daniel O’Neill (Amer., fl. 1857-1873). Ref: NLA; Masterpieces of Australian Photography, Josef Lebovic Gallery, 1989, #40.

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Item #CL191-11

Price (AUD): $1,950.00  other currencies

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